REVIVAL

2 Timothy 1: 1–8; Genesis 45: 21–28; Revelation 2: 1–7; 3: 7–13

GAB What was in mind in suggesting these scriptures was the matter of revival. There have been many revivals in the course of God’s dealings with His people, both in the past dispensation and in the present, and what seems to have happened so often is that a time of revival is followed by a decline and then perhaps another revival and another decline. It is quite clear that that is not what the Lord has in mind for us. He would desire for us that we should be maintained in the brightness of the revival right to the end of our course, whatever that may be. It may be that He might take us by way of death, or it may be that He will take us all together, but whatever, surely it would be our desire, would it not, to be shining brightly until the end. I just want to say this at the beginning, we are not really talking here about recovery from any particular sin or course of sin; that is another matter and I think the Lord helps us if these things come up in an individual way in self-judgment, or even it comes to the assembly, the Lord helps us to deal with things appropriately so that we have a basis to continue together in fellowship. That is not what is in my mind, it is more the tendency, dear brethren, and I say this to myself as much as to anyone else, to settle into a kind of comfortable orthodoxy. We are not doing anything wrong, we have good meetings, we might even feel quite pleased with ourselves; that is a danger point and I just feel the Lord might stimulate us a little to be revived out of that state of lassitude which overtakes us so easily.

We read about Timothy who was a young person and Jacob who was an old person; I say ‘person’ advisedly because I do not want the sisters to think that this does not apply to them.

In fact I was thinking of Dorcas, but we do not have time to go into every matter that we would like to, but she was one who was quite pleased with herself. She was a respected sister who did so many good things, she was full of the works which she did, but that leads to death and she needed to be revived, and she was. In these two persons we have individual exercises. The passages we read in Revelation bring us to what is collective, and whilst these seven assemblies have a prophetic bearing covering the history of the church publicly, it is also true that these were actual local meetings all going on at the same time, not very far apart from each other, and yet what a difference there is in the state that existed in each of them. We cannot go into all the details but I thought we should read the whole address to Ephesus and to Philadelphia. Both of these assemblies had had a really bright day, but the sad thing is that in Ephesus there had been decline, though there is no evidence that there was decline in Philadelphia. The Lord has no word of reproof for Philadelphia, which I think points to the fact that it is possible to be sustained and maintained in the brightness of revival right to the end. That was broadly what was in mind. Do you think we could make something of that?

JS I think it is encouraging to be occupied with this matter of revival. The second epistle to Timothy was specially written in view of the condition of things in the assembly, and maybe some of us at times tend to flag or droop, but do you think we are to be maintained in spiritual energy or to be revived to that?

GAB Yes, it is interesting you should say that because Mr Darby’s footnote to the word “rekindle” is very interesting, it says, ‘To revive, rekindle, what is drooping’. The whole subject of the epistle is energy in the darkening state of the assembly. That is the day we are in. Timothy was a very fine young man; he had a good beginning, a good upbringing too. We do not know much about his father but he had a godly mother and grandmother. He was taught in the Scriptures in his youth like many of us here (I suppose most here have had a privileged upbringing), and he had committed himself to going with Paul too. He actually stood in the breach when others turned aside; there is so much to be said for Timothy, how admirable a young man he was. But the fact that Paul writes here to rekindle, means that there had been some measure of discouragement. Rekindle means that you are going to bring this flame back to what it had been before. It may well have been that so many were turning away at that time, and perhaps he was unwell too because Paul speaks of his frequent illnesses, maybe he had got down a little.

JS Do you think the frequent references to Christ Jesus in this epistle would help us to see that if we are to be sustained we need to be assured of our links with the Man who is glorified?

GAB Yes, very good, that is right. So it is not all gloom. I feel that the tendency is to take account of all the negative things that happen, and become so occupied with that that we lose sight of Christ in glory.

MGW Why did you start with the individual and we get the meetings last? You make me think that sometimes we feel the meetings are a bit slow and not all that bright. Can I just start checking up on myself first of all, what has happened to my joy of late, my communion is a bit erratic? There is mention of encouragement in this passage.

GAB Yes. Our brother, Mr Jim Renton, used to challenge us quite often and say, Is this your brightest day? Because if it is not you are going back. We do not always think in these terms, but it just draws you up to think that if there have been brighter days, when I had more zeal and fervour for the Lord and His things and His people than I have today, well there has been decline and the Lord would bring in revival. That is my exercise today.

MGW In our experience is it not a way that the Lord has endeared Himself to us more and more? He has not let us go, He has kept us.

GAB Yes, that is right. Somewhere it speaks about “a little reviving”, Ezra 9: 8. He has given us a little reviving. There is nothing big publicly, we are not expecting any return to the huge numbers we once had, or anything on those lines at all, but it is a little revival. It is the quality of the thing that matters rather than the quantity.

JCG The reference to unfeigned faith would lie at the base of his desire to rekindle the gift of God in Timothy. What would you say as to the reference to the unfeigned faith?

GAB Well, it might be obvious to say that it stands over against what is feigned, but does it not mean that there is much in the way of profession which is really just a false thing? It is reality that God is looking for, is it not? This matter of rekindling is interesting. I was just linking it in my mind with the wood-offering in Nehemiah. Would that be a fair analogy, do you think?

JS Tell us a little more about it

GAB Wood has a great place in Scripture; we have cedar wood, acacia wood, olive wood, gopher wood, all used for constructive purposes, but the wood-offering is in Nehemiah. It is not in Leviticus; there is no evidence of a wood-offering in Leviticus where the other offerings are, but in Nehemiah 10, verse 34, it says, “And we cast the lots among the priests, the Levites, and the people, for the wood-offering, to bring it into the house of our God, according to our fathers’ houses, at times appointed year by year, to burn upon the altar of Jehovah our God”. It was wood to be burnt. It means that there is something that is being consumed. Paul says that if our outward man is consumed, the inward is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4: 16). I think that this kind of revival that we are talking about really involves that I give my all, including my body, that is Romans 12 of course; but it might be, and it does happen, that the body deteriorates. It may be that there is persecution and there might even be martyrdom, the outward is going to be consumed, but the inward is renewed day by day. I think that was what Paul was trying to get into activity here, do you think?

JS Do you think it is publicly an energetic operation of love that would ensure that the sacrifice goes up acceptably to God? It came in at the end of Nehemiah 13, “I purified them from all foreigners, and appointed the charges of the priests and the Levites, every one in his service; and for the wood-offering, at times appointed, and for the first-fruits. Remember me, O my God, for good!” (Nehemiah 13: 30). It obviously had in mind how things will be continued in power, do you think?

GAB Yes. It was the fire that burned on the altar that brought the sweet savour to the nostrils of God. How God delights in the fragrance of Christ, but it is released through persons like you and me, like all of us here, persons who are prepared to commit ourselves beyond recall and devote our lives, our bodies, possessions, everything, so that this spirit might go on brighter and brighter. The remarkable thing is that the wood-offering was always being consumed but there was always more coming forward.

JDG Paul says here, “I have the remembrance of thee in my supplications night and day, earnestly desiring to see thee, remembering thy tears”. I wondered if that would link with what is testimonial in relation to the testimony on the side of the wood-offering.

GAB Yes. Tears would mean that he really felt things, and we have to feel things, it is only right that we should. I fear for myself that the sorrow of the situation might overwhelm us. We need to feel things and we certainly do, but do you feel that we need to be buoyed up as well?

JDG I think he was trying to revive Timothy recalling the deep affection that he had for the Lord, it was stressed in that way.

GAB Yes, exactly.

DCB The epistle begins with this reference to life, the life which is in Christ Jesus. That is the life to be maintained, is it not? If we are in that life then that carries us through.

GAB Yes. The Lord’s word of reproof to Sardis is, “thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead”, Revelation 3: 1. What is going to carry the testimony through is something living and vibrant and fervent. I feel that that maybe I am not as fervent as I was, and that is a very sobering thing to consider, but it is good to face it nevertheless.

RG I was going to ask if really the crux of the whole thing is keeping a living link with the Man in the glory. It says in the previous epistle, “O Timotheus, keep the entrusted deposit”, 1 Timothy 6: 20. You may ask, What is the entrusted deposit? Surely it is the greatness of Paul’s ministry that he received from the One who was in heaven; and that is where, if we keep in communion, we keep in life, do you think?

GAB Exactly. I think it is important to see that that our destiny is heavenly and our origin is heavenly as well. It is our course down here which is more testing. That is where the dangers lie, but at the same time the fact that these dangers are there has to be combated. It all goes towards our formation, does it not? The Lord sometimes takes persons immediately they are converted, like the thief on the cross, and so on, but most of us are left a bit longer, and the experiences that we go through are all for our formation.

JDG There is really something within him that can be revived. The work of God is there and that is what he is appealing to.

GAB That is what I see in the word ‘rekindle’. It is not to kindle for the first time but it is something that had been burning brightly. We are not saying that he was defective in any way; it was just that he was down a bit, and have you never been down? I think you have.

JSp I was just thinking of your reference to the wood-offering. I wondered if that would underlie the burnt-offering, all night to the morning. They gathered the wood and, to carry your thought further, the fragrance of Christ would go up to God; it was not allowed to go out, it was to be held all night until the morning.

GAB Yes, very good. That is exactly what is in my mind that this brightness, this burning should never be allowed to decline or go out. Did not the two whom the Lord met on the way to Emmaus say, “Was not our heart burning in us as he spoke to us on the way …?”, Luke 24: 32. Their hearts were on fire. What meetings we would have if we came together, every one of us, with our hearts on fire for Christ.

APG There is a word in Isaiah 40, verse 31, “they that wait upon Jehovah shall renew their strength—they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not tire; they shall

walk, and not faint”. That is by waiting upon Jehovah.

GAB Yes, that is good. They shall walk, and not faint”. There is no need for us to faint, because we have every resource available to us in the Spirit as well as in Christ on high.

So our walking or running should not be weary; why should we be weary? When we come to consider Jacob we will see that he was a bit weary but ultimately he was revived.

GB With Paul’s opening remarks to the Corinthians in his first epistle, he names the features that were with them and in everything they had been enriched in Him, but it was with a view to confirming them to the end, unimpeachable. Would there be some link in your mind with that thought?

GAB Yes, exactly. That is right, unimpeachable, to the end. That is your point, to the end. That is my exercise. You might go so far rightly and then there is a lapse. We will see later in Ephesus, when we come to speak about it, perhaps nobody else would have noticed there was a lapse somewhere, but the Lord knows it and the Lord feels it too.

MGW Do you think it would be a real cheer to Timothy’s heart when Paul says in the exhortation, “For God has not given us a spirit of cowardice, but of power, and of love, and of wise discretion”?

GAB Yes, it is as if he says, what are you waiting for? You have everything there, it is so available and it is from God, power and love and wise discretion. If you have the spirit of cowardice, where did that come from? It did not come from God anyway, God did not give you that. So we have to analyse ourselves and clearly, at any particular time, elements of cowardice may be with us; but we would have to say, No, God did not give me that, it must have come from somewhere else. Where else could it come from except from the devil himself? There is burning fervour in the hearts of the saints, and God is greater. He has given us a spirit of power and of love and of wise discretion.

MGW It is so comforting. He is not talking about the features themselves but a spirit; He has not given us a spirit of cowardice but He has given us a spirit of power and of love and of wise discretion. It is like that word about the Lord, “the Spirit of Jehovah shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Jehovah”, Isaiah 11: 2. There is something spiritual in that.

GAB Yes, quite so. The Holy Spirit would certainly engender these features with us; it is the kind of thing that marks the believer, as it marked the Lord.

DTP There have been references to the glad tidings brought in. Is that something that we constantly need for our revival, and to live in the joy of it too as the week proceeds? It is one of the very important occasions, the outgoing of God’s word.

GAB Yes, it is indeed. We cannot do without it. We hear sometimes of persons who do not come to the gospel preaching because they say they are converted already. You might need to be converted again. I think what you say is right. It is interesting in that respect that Paul exhorts Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. I do not think you will ever find it said specifically that Timothy had the gift of an evangelist, but in this darkening state of the assembly you have to put your hand to the work and do what needs to be done, and the preaching of the glad tidings is a very, very important feature.

JCG Does it bring in many other scriptures? Jude refers to contending earnestly for the faith once delivered to the saints. His reference to ‘earnestly’ would bring in some sort of revival amongst those who were perhaps flagging.

GAB Yes, and there was what was once delivered to the saints. That is to say it had been delivered, and we only need to read these early chapters in the Acts to see the zeal and fervour that marked the early days. Pentecostal days you might say, but then of course that shaded off as you know.

TDB I do not want to bring in too many examples but I was thinking about Caleb. There was a lot of opposition but he said, “we are well able”, Numbers 13: 30. He maybe did not mean rekindle, but I was thinking about the spirit of the man,

he was vigorous.

GAB Yes, that is right and he was one who went right through. He crossed the Jordan and went into the good land. He was a remarkable case of one who was maintained in this brightness.

KW In the early chapters in the Acts, after the Lord Jesus had been with them and then He had gone on high, they were a bit despondent. I was thinking how they persevered in the breaking of bread and prayers. Would that be a way of keeping revival in relation to the gospel? The breaking of bread keeps the revival before us week by week, the Lord is before us and prayers too.

GAB Well, that is good because the breaking of bread is a very important thing in our lives. In the old dispensation there were three major feasts in a year but we have the greatest of all, fifty-two times in a year. We cannot afford to miss the Lord’s supper. I know the Lord understands if there is illness or the care of children, and so on, that is all legitimate, but under normal circumstances we need the Lord’s supper to revive us every Lord’s day, but the problem is we tend to shade off a bit and we need another revival; that level should be maintained all the way through, so as you say there are prayers as well, so it is rather disappointing that people come to the breaking of bread but do not trouble to come to the prayer meeting. We would like to think that they would be there for every occasion. “They that feared Jehovah spoke often one to another”, Malachi 3: 16. So the whole assembly week is carried through without diminution.

JSp Would that all be included in the testimony of our Lord? It is a wide thing, it means that we are not shut up to ourselves. We have to begin with ourselves, I know that, but having in mind the testimony of our Lord would be that every interest is fresh to Christ.

GAB That is right, I am glad you bring that up about every interest because I feel we need to be specific in our prayers. It is easy enough to pray for all the sick ones in the whole world, but being specific is to name persons before the Lord. The Father does not tire of hearing us praying for the beloved saints; there is a fragrance about that.

JDG That is where the Spirit of Christ is attached. Paul was in prison so it is quite a test to be attached to a man who is in prison, “me his prisoner”. There were those who had run away in Israel from what Paul was presenting in Christ, but what surfaces is a man who searched him out diligently, and he is exhorting Timothy not to be ashamed of his bonds or the testimony.

GAB It would appear from that scripture that Paul was not very easily found. Onesiphorus sought him out diligently, he must have had to ask around a bit to find where Paul was and we are tested in a day like this, when in principle the testimony is in chains, to be able to locate where the Lord is working.

JDG We are attached to a company which comes under reproach in the world, so it is quite a test for our affections to be true to that.

GAB Yes. You can just see Onesiphorus coming round there saying, Does anyone here know of a prisoner called Paul, then he would try somewhere else. He would get a name for himself, a man who was always looking for Paul. Well, that is not a bad thing, is it?

JS As to this matter of being specific in our prayers, do you think we would need to see and hear what is happening exactly? There is a reference to the ears of the assembly (Acts 11: 22). Do you think we need to be in line with the Man who intercedes for us, and to think of the things He carries. He carries everything intelligently.

GAB You can think of Paul as well, as a servant who carried the burden of all the assemblies. You might say, I do not know what is happening in some places. Well, why not? You can enquire.

JS We could perhaps set ourselves more to know about these things, do you think?

GAB I have felt that for some time. It is so easy to be general in our prayers and perhaps have four or five brothers who are praying for the same thing. There are plenty of things to pray for unless of course there are cases of urgency where repetition is justified.

RG Praying with prayer, it says. That brings in real soul exercise. It is not something that you have just thought up when you at down sat the prayer meeting. I have had the exercise for a while that we should know what we are going to pray for before we get to the prayer meeting, and you might even ask your wife what she would pray about. Mr. James Taylor said that brevity makes way for variety and I think we need that; it keeps the prayer meeting a power meeting then.

GAB That is a good way to put it, the power meeting.

JS If we are exercised in that way we would not need to have long pauses.

GAB No, there would hardly be enough time to get everything in because the Lord’s interests are so varied.

MGW I was thinking of the revival, we have the young man but we have also an old man who needed this as well.

GAB You are referring to Jacob?

MGW Yes, some of us are old but we need a touch; we may settle down faster than others.

GAB It seems to me that Jacob was overwhelmed by the death of Joseph; as far as he knew Joseph was dead. I was just wondering if we could apply this to the fact that the Lord has been rejected, “He came to his own, and his own received him not”, John 1: 11. So did Joseph’s brethren, they put him in the pit, and as far as Jacob knew he was dead. So there is a tendency to be overwhelmed by the public rejection of Christ. Jacob was living at distance from Joseph without knowing it. Joseph had been in the pit but he was not in the pit any more. He was not in the prison any more either. Felix spoke about a “certain Jesus who is dead, whom Paul affirmed to be living”, Acts 25: 19. That is the public view of Christ; all would admit the existence of such a Person, a teacher and so on, but that was two thousand years ago. That is the public position; but Jacob here, although he had a long history with God yet at this stage in his life he seems to be just sinking into sorrow over that public view of things; but the good news is that Joseph is yet alive, and not only is he alive but he is glorified, he is governor over the whole land of Egypt. That is good news, is it not?

MGW It was when he saw the waggons and all that had been brought from this exalted man, and the supplies that he can give to sustain.

JS I was thinking, “And they spoke to him all the words of Joseph, which he had spoken to them”. Do you think there is the assurance in living ministry coming from Christ who is living, and along with that the waggons?

GAB Yes, tell us about the waggons, what does that mean?

JS I think it is the provision of what would facilitate our movements towards Christ to bring in the spirit of revival, do you think?

GAB Yes, that is good, because Joseph was not going to just send food to sustain his father where he was; he wants to have him where he is, so that is why the waggons are there. We have to go to where Christ is, a risen and glorified Christ, to be with Him and to live with Him. It is not just to know that He is raised and glorified, but to have part with Him. We sang at the beginning about the glorious living Head.

DTP I was just wondering a little on whether we do really need to experience what death is. It is a solemn thing, but we need to experience it to appreciate what we have been brought into in life. The wonder of it I think comes in here which even affects Joseph’s brethren because he gives them a warning, “Do not quarrel on the way”, but you find when they come to their father they convey all the wonder of what Joseph has done.

GAB Yes, “they told him, saying, Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt”. That is the glad tidings of the glory. Christ in glory, glorified amongst the Gentiles as He is here in type, but then it says of Jacob, “his heart fainted, for he did not believe them”. You can hardly blame the old man; he was accustomed to the idea that Joseph was dead all those years. It is almost like when the Lord appeared to His own after He rose from the dead. At one point, it says that they did not believe for joy (Luke 24: 41). They were overwhelmed, they just could not believe it was true, such a wonderful thing had happened.

JCG The transportation to Joseph was very important. I was thinking of a line of Mr Darby’s hymn, ‘Our hearts resort to where Thou liv’st’ (Hymn 25). The indication was to bring out in Jacob from thinking about Sheol all the time, and bringing his grey hairs down to a life down here as it were. Do you think the Spirit’s service is to transport us to Christ in glory, where He is, and dwell in His conditions? That brings in life, does it not?

GAB Yes, that is right. It says, “he saw the waggons that Joseph had sent to carry him. And the spirit of Jacob their father revived. And Israel said, It is enough—Joseph my son is yet alive; I will go and see him before I die”. I suppose that would be all right in his dispensation to be thinking about death although he lived quite a long time, eighteen years or so after this, but our outlook is glory with Christ eternally.

RG This is him on the way, a revived man, to blessing each of the sons of Joseph and worshipping on the top of his staff. We need to see what the positive result is in all this. It was not just for his own blessing, but that he might be able to look to the generation following, each of the sons of Joseph, and then he worships; so that there is something to be proceeding with here if the Lord tarry, when at the same time the worship of God is to be maintained.

GAB We are not looking to die, at least I cannot say I am looking forward to dying exactly. If the Lord takes me that is very much better; but it is the Lord’s coming that we are looking for. Our outlook is, as the hymn says, ‘The sky, not the grave, is our goal’, (Hymn 238).

JAW He is called Jacob throughout this section but in the last verse he is called Israel. He has revived to the full thought of God’s purpose. You mentioned the twelve tribes, it is the full thought that we are intended to reach.

GAB Yes, that is very good. I think that just brings out the truth of the matter. Jacob was a man who had been through a great many experiences, and not all of them creditable, but that is all brought to fulness and completion now, and here he is according to the divine mind for him.

WWL I was wondering about Ephesians 4. It speaks of “Having ascended up on high, he has led captivity captive, and has given gifts to men” (Ephesians 4: 8). Then it goes on to speak about the gifts and then “until we all arrive at the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, at the full-grown man, at the measure of the stature of the fulness of the Christ”. Would that gift be like the waggons which leads on to this?

GAB Yes, I think so. It is Israel, the full divine thought for us. There is no reason why we should not reach through to this, is there? You might say things are difficult, things are hard, there are so many things to hold us back, but we have everything, we have a spirit of power and love and wise discretion, we have the Holy Spirit, we have Christ on high. What more can we ask for? We have everything to see us right through to the end, to a glorious conclusion.

DCB I wondered if these waggons would link with that power and love and wise discretion; that is power the Philadelphians had. It is in the knowledge that we have been given the gift of power and of love and wise discretion that we can be maintained.

GAB I think the term our brother used is good, ‘to facilitate’ means there is movement towards Christ. I think that is a good way to put it, facilitated, because it is not intended to be difficult. As we said earlier, if you have a spirit of cowardice it is the devil who put that there, it is not God who gives you that. God would make it easy for us, He has given us all we need to arrive at the divine thoughts and quickly too. It was not in my mind to go into all the details of these two assemblies, but I was just thinking of the fact that these were actually local assemblies. I am not thinking so much of the prophetic side of it just now, but they were meetings just like the meetings we have, I suppose, and there had certainly been a very great level of spirituality reached in Ephesus, but what happened after we do not know. Maybe some of the older ones had been taken but at least there is a good deal said to the credit of this meeting.

JMM What Paul says to Timothy about power and of love and of wise discretion, there was a significant amount of power in evidence here and also of wise discretion, but there is a specific issue raised as to love. Do you think that is crucial in being maintained in the spirit of a revival?

GAB Well, that is a very important point to bring up because you could not have faulted them in regard to doctrine. They were very zealous; in fact they hated the works of the Nicolaitanes. They could not bear evil men, they had tried them who said that they were apostles, that would be a matter of doctrine I suppose, persons setting up doctrine claiming apostolic authority; they would not have any of that, so there is a lot to be said for them, but their love was lacking and in some ways that is the most important of all.

JS It is telling that Paul’s final word in the epistle to the Ephesians, which would be written before this, “Grace with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in incorruption”, was the thing they fell down on.

GAB I am glad this has come up. I am not saying there is not love among the brethren, there is, and in fact sometimes you are overwhelmed by it, especially when times of trial come up and the brethren rally round; there is love amongst the brethren undoubtedly but we can always test ourselves.

JS Do you think this has a distinct bearing on the Lord’s supper? its importance lies in the fact that it provides for a manifestation of His love, and an opportunity to respond to that? Do you think that would sustain us in revival?

GAB Yes, indeed. As remarked earlier I think the frequency of the Lord’s supper in this dispensation outshines anything that was in the Old Testament times. We have that demonstration, actual material symbols in the loaf and the cup which bring out the love of Christ and the love of God; how rich that is to have it so frequently brought before us. It is a distinctive feature of this dispensation.

JS So the opportunity to respond to that would keep love alive in our hearts.

GAB Yes, indeed.

RG Loving in incorruption, if it is experienced anywhere, is experienced at the Supper. We were speaking about this in the reading last week that we need liberty to be able to engage at that point in the Supper to the Lord and you know that when you go back in the ministry it has always been an exercise going on to the Father too quickly. It is the Lord’s supper and where the Lord finds an answer to His heart in incorruption. That is where it is and we should be concerned to be revived to have our part in that, do you think?

GAB Yes. The Lord’s supper and what follows is, you could say, about the only meeting where there is no scope for controversy. Who is going to argue with that demonstration of such perfect love; there is no room for any discordant note or any kind of dissimulation, not there.

JDG Does love in incorruption really relate to being partakers of the divine nature? It is at that level that love flows amongst us and at all occasions.

GAB I think it is a most remarkable thing that we have been made partakers of the divine nature. We will never be anything other than creature but the divine nature has been imparted to us.

JDG It cannot be corrupted.

GAB Whatever may happen to me in my responsible life I could be corrupted, but what is of God, the divine nature, is incorruptible.

JD Mr Stoney speaks of decline as not inevitable, although publicly it is; but the things you have been drawing attention to, Christ in glory and the Spirit here and the Lord’s supper, would mean, that in the believer’s affections decline is not necessarily inevitable.

GAB No, it is not inevitable; I think it is important to see that, in fact it is not normal. I think we sometimes confuse what is normal with what is usual but what is usual is quite often not normal. Normal Christianity is continuing at the highest level right through to the end and there is no reason why it should be other than that. You might say, Well you show me where it has been like that, but it need not have been defective, it is our fault because we were not really making use of all these great resources which are available to us. I do not intend to go into the detail of these two assemblies but just to note the fact that in Philadelphia there is no evidence of decline, and that is why I think it is interesting to look at it in this light, because it shows that decline is not inevitable. I would say that what we have in Philadelphia is normal Christianity.

JS Do you think that when He says “I come quickly: hold fast what thou hast, that no one take thy crown”. He outlines for us the importance of keeping the Lord’s coming continually before us, and holding to the highest level what we have received?

GAB That is right. We are not really saying like Jacob that we are going on until we die, but we are looking for the coming of the Lord which draws nigh; it has been the immediate hope of the church throughout the whole dispensation; someone somewhere has been saying, ‘Lord Jesus, come’. All through the dark ages I am sure there were faithful souls who were saying, ‘Even so, come Lord Jesus’.

JCG The reference to the Lord saying, “shall know that I have loved thee”, do you think that that is an indication that the Lord appreciated persons who enjoyed His presence at the Supper, that there was a sense not just, as there was at Ephesus, of maintaining the principles of the truth and separation and the testimony, and not being wearied and so on, but that there was a spark there that enjoyed the presence of the Lord at the Supper and hence He says, “and shall know that I have loved thee” ? It is in response to that.

GAB Yes, that is right. The greatest thing is to know that you are loved, is it not? It is greater than our love for Him although of course you have the idea in the assembly that there is a suitable response to that love, but as individuals does not Mr Darby say in verse,

‘O Lord, ‘tis sweet the thought

That Thou art mine;

But brighter still the joy

That I am Thine!’.

JDG Is it not affection for Christ that leads to Philadelphian conditions being maintained?

GAB Yes, that is just the point that our brother was bringing up as to Ephesus, that was the thing that had been missing there, but it does not seem to be missing at Philadelphia.

RG That is what Philadelphia means, brotherly love, so it must have been in existence and in evidence, do you think?

GAB Yes.

MC Paul says to Corinth, “yet shew I unto you a way of more surpassing excellence” (1 Corinthians 12: 31), and he outlines in the whole of chapter 13 the wonder of what love can do, do you think?

GAB That is right. It has often been said that there was not much evidence of it at Corinth but Paul says, I will show you it, and is what it is, and you keep that before you; and the next epistle to the Corinthians shows that they had been revived. That is a very blessed thing that there was a response. I just trust the Lord might stir us up a little to be in the full joy of recovery and revival and remain that way until the end.

Reading at Dundee
15 November 2008

KEY TO INITIALS

G. Bailey

R. Gardiner

D. T. Pye

T. D. Beveridge

A. P. Grant

J. Spinks

D. C. Brown

J. C. Gray

J. Strachan

G. A. Brown

J. D. Gray

J. A. Walker

M. Cowan

W. Lovie Jr.

K. Walker

J. Drummond

J. M. Macfarlane

M. G. Wood